Question of the Day - 27 January 2025

According to blogger Nolan Dalla, William Brennan “remains the only successful mastermind of an inside job in Las Vegas history who (apparently) got away with it.” A “complete and total loner,” Brennan would be 66 now, if he’s reading this.

Dalla runs through several theories of the crime. One is that Brennan was in cahoots with a whale to rob the Stardust blind. Another was that he paid off the surveillance agents, thereby explaining the absence of video evidence of his larcenous exit. But Dalla writes, “Evidence is non-existent.” Same with the Mr. Big theory.

A third theory has Brennan being bumped off shortly after the heist. This would explain his otherwise inexplicable disappearance. Dalla shoots that one down, too. “Once again, this appears to be a wild concoction lacking any evidence.”

Brennan was studying the topics of identity changes and moving out of the country at the time of his Stardust caper. But he took his cat with him, which would have greatly complicated an international flight. Although he was placed on the FBI’s most-wanted list, he can probably breathe more easily today. His case, after all, was dismissed in 2006 when the ‘Dust was imploded, according to Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Lauren Liebhaber Stacker.

Richard Schuetz, late of the Stardust sports book, notes, “Back in the day, it was not excessively difficult to wash chips. I don't know if the ‘Dust made an effort to replace the chips' denomination. It seems cash was also involved, so this would not be too difficult then.”

What do other Vegas experts think? “This is like an old-age memory test,” laments John L. Smith. He has no idea what became of Brennan, but does offer a theory as to his ill-gotten gains.

“Brennan timed his theft to coincide with the big betting on "Monday Night Football" from the Stardust, still the most notorious book in Las Vegas. At the time, it had good people running it, but plenty of characters were still floating through the book as if Lefty Rosenthal were still running the place. (Think Dominic Spinale, Eddie DeLeo and others.)

“What could someone with connections in Las Vegas have done with the chips? Well, hand them off to associates in the casino, for one. Store them away for a year, then bring them back out. These weren’t ‘chocolate’ chips or other super-high denominations, if I recall correctly. This was the coin of the realm and easily sellable for a percentage of face value. In those days, I wouldn’t doubt Brennan knew other employees at the Stardust and elsewhere.”

The theft of the cash may have hurt more than did the loss of the chips. As Schuetz observes, “I worked at Boomtown in northern Nevada when they had metal dollar gaming tokens for the dollar slot machines. People kept taking the tokens home as souvenirs. 

“This annoyed the CFO, who wrote a memo to stop the customers from taking these metal tokens. We had to explain to the CFO that the tokens cost 12 cents to produce, the customers paid a dollar for them, and everyone who left the property earned us 88 cents.”

An “industry source” of long Vegas standing adds, “As you’ve seen with other casino robberies, higher-denomination chips are much more rarely used and draw significant attention when cashed. So chips of $500 or more would be very difficult for someone to redeem without drawing attention, especially if the person hadn't been playing previously.

“Redeeming smaller denomination chips is much more routine, but you'd still attract attention if you tried to redeem large quantities of chips without any casino play. That kind of activity would be flagged as a potential attempt at money laundering (the specific term used in the industry is ‘chip walking’).”